DOMELRE
{{Short description|First domestic electrical refrigerator}}
File:DOMELRE refrigerator advertisement from 1914.png
File:DOMELRE refrigerator c. 1914.png
File:ISKO advertisement from Good Housekeeping 1917.png
DOMELRE (an acronym of Domestic Electric Refrigerator) was one of the first domestic electrical refrigerators, invented by Frederick William Wolf Jr. (1879–1954) in 1913 and produced starting in 1914 by Wolf's Mechanical Refrigerator Company in Chicago. Several hundred units were sold, which made it the most commercially successful product out of several competing designs of its time.{{Cite book|last=Rees|first=Jonathan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JeoEAQAAQBAJ&dq=DOMELRE&pg=PA138|title=Refrigeration Nation: A History of Ice, Appliances, and Enterprise in America|date=2013-12-15|publisher=JHU Press|isbn=978-1-4214-1107-1|pages=137–138|language=en}} The unit replaced the block of ice in the icebox with an electrical-powered cooling device,{{Cite journal|last=Nagengast|first=Bernard|date=2004|title=Electric refrigerators vital contribution to households.|url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/220452699|journal=ASHRAE Journal|volume=46|issue=11|pages=11–16|id={{ProQuest|220452699}} }} and was completely automatic.{{Cite journal|last=Nagengast|first=Bernard|date=2007|title=Re-Inventing the Wheel in HVAC&R Technology: History Does Repeat!.|url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/192497208|journal=ASHRAE Transactions|volume=113|issue=1|pages=186–191|id={{ProQuest|192497208}} }}
Often labelled as the "first electrical refrigerator" or similar,{{Cite web|title=DOMELRE First Electric Refrigerator {{!}} ashrae.org|url=https://www.ashrae.org/about/mission-and-vision/ashrae-industry-history/domelre-first-electric-refrigerator|access-date=2021-08-02|website=www.ashrae.org}} It has been described as "revolutionary" in the history of domestic refrigeration.{{Cite journal|last=Nagengast|first=Bernard|date=2000-05-01|title=It's a Cool Story|journal=Mechanical Engineering|volume=122|issue=5|pages=56–63|doi=10.1115/1.2000-MAY-3|issn=0025-6501|doi-access=}}
History
DOLMERE was invented by Frederick William Wolf Jr. (American engineer also known as Fred W. Wolf Jr., 1879-1954), a charter member of the American Society of Refrigerating Engineers, in 1913. An estimated several hundred to thousands of units were produced starting in 1914 by his Mechanical Refrigerator Company in Chicago.{{Cite web|title=Air Conditioning and Refrigeration History - part 3 - Greatest Engineering Achievements of the Twentieth Century|url=http://www.greatachievements.org/?id=3862|access-date=2021-08-02|website=www.greatachievements.org}} Fred Heideman was also involved in the unit's design. In 1916 Wolf sold the rights to the invention to Henry Joy, president of Packard Motor Car Company in Detroit, which released an upgraded version under the name ISKO. Having sold about a thousand more models, Joy's company nonetheless went bankrupt in 1922.
Commercially, DOMELRE was described as "a quick hit". The unit was considered relatively inexpensive for its time. The original model was sold for $900 ($24,450 in 2021 dollars); the 1916 model was priced at $385 in 1916 ($9,600 in 2021 dollars), later dropping to $275 ($6,850 in 2021 dollars). 525 were sold.
Significance
DOMELRE has been described as "revolutionary" in the history of domestic refrigeration. It has been described as the "first domestic refrigerator",{{cite book|author=Lydia Bjornlund|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XuMuCgAAQBAJ&pg=PP1|title=How the Refrigerator Changed History|date=1 August 2015|publisher=ABDO|isbn=978-1-62969-771-0|page=13}} the "first household refrigerator",{{Cite journal|last=Watkins|first=Helen|date=2006-04-01|title=Beauty Queen, Bulletin Board and Browser: Rescripting the refrigerator|url=https://doi.org/10.1080/09663690600573742|journal=Gender, Place & Culture|volume=13|issue=2|pages=143–152|doi=10.1080/09663690600573742|s2cid=144281308|issn=0966-369X|url-access=subscription}} the "first electrical refrigerator", the "first successful, mass marketed package automatic electric refrigeration unit", "the first plug-in refrigeration unit", "the first mass-produced small refrigeration system", "the first electric household refrigerator to survive its infancy" or just as "the domestic electric refrigerator".{{Cite journal|last1=Rodriguez-Martinez|first1=Veronica|last2=Velazquez|first2=Gonzalo|last3=Massa-Barrera|first3=Sofia|last4=Welti-Chanes|first4=Jorge|last5=Fagotti|first5=Fabian|last6=Torres|first6=J. Antonio|date=2019-09-01|title=Estimation of Safety and Quality Losses of Foods Stored in Residential Refrigerators|url=https://doi.org/10.1007/s12393-019-09192-1|journal=Food Engineering Reviews|language=en|volume=11|issue=3|pages=184–199|doi=10.1007/s12393-019-09192-1|s2cid=181903402|issn=1866-7929|url-access=subscription}}
According to ASHRAE, DOMELRE contained a number of innovations not found in prior domestic refrigerators, such as offering automatic temperature control by thermostat, an air cooled condenser that did not require water, and not the least, it also introduced a freezing tray for ice cubes.
A 2005 assessment of the history of the ice delivery business in the New York Times concluded that the technology that DOMELRE pioneered gradually led to the end of that business in New York by 1950.{{cite news | last =O'Donnell | first =Edward T. | title =The Dawn of New York's Ice Age | newspaper =New York Times | location = | pages = | language = | publisher = | date =July 31, 2005 | url =https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1927/06/26/101504299.html?pageNumber=203 | access-date = August 1, 2021}}
References
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External links
- [https://patents.google.com/?inventor=Fred+W+Wolf US patents for Fred W. Wolf including for his "refrigerating apparatuses"]